Powering Thermal Expansion machines

[Dreossk]

I tried the infinite water+Aqueous Accumulator+Steam engine setup to power my 3 Thermal Expansion machines (Pulverizer, Powered furnace and Sawmill) but I found that it would quickly deplete energy when 2 machines were running at the same time and I didn't want to add engines and having to feed them all with coal so I installed Industrial Craft Solar panels and 2 batboxes with wires that go into TE Eletrical Engines to power the machines. The problem is that even if the machines are not running, the engines are and they waste my energy. I can put a block and a lever on the engine and put the machine to require a redstone signal to run so when I pull the lever, both the engine and the machine work but I don't need all those levers in IC2 and I can't stack machines now. Another problem is that even if each machine has its own electrical engine, the machine's internal storage is depleted faster that the engine gives it energy so it slows down and it's really inefficient. I like the TE machines but if there is no way for them to stop wasting energy when they are not used, I will go back to IC2. How can I do that? Or what is the best way to power them up that requires no human intervention?

          5x Solar panels
                |
                |
              Batbox
                |
                |
              Batbox
              |  |  |
              |  |  |
    3x TE Electrical engines
Pulverizer Powered furnace Sawmill

 

[kilbiller]

I don't if that's the best way but i made a magma crucible with 5 magmatic engine to power it , the magma crucible produce more than enough lava to fuel the magmatic engines that power the crucible and 5 more that i use to power everything else.
One bucket of lava in the magmatic engines is enough to start the circle of infinite lava and power.

 

[Cloud]

Electric engines are terribly inefficient compared to the other engines.
To answer your question, you need to make buildcraft gates to automatic the setup.
There are many videos out there that show you how to use them such as direwolf20 smp shared liquid room.
However, gates need a assembly table and some lasers which is not cheap to make and power in the early game.

 

[Dreossk]

Thanks guys.

Wow kilbiller that sounds great. But I assume that everything will still work even if the energy is not needed, won't that overheat the engines?

 

[kilbiller]

I tought it would but the magmatic engine always output a least 0.5 MJ so they never overheat

 

[Mikey_R]

Magmatic engines are TE engines, and they are probably better at handling energy than other engines. Basically, if what it's pumping energy into doesn't need any more power, then it slows down, producing very little power but at the same time, using very little fuel, meaning it won't (or it takes a very very long time to) overheat. Even if it does, it won't explode, it will just sit there and not work. Just whack it with a BC wrench to get them going again.

Just don't use wooden conductive pipes to get the energy, either hook it straight up to a machine or use energy conduits. Wooden pipes always take the energy out of the engines even if there is nowhere for it to go, meaning youe engines won't slow down.

 

[noah_wolfe]

Electrical Engines are Forestry (not TE) and as stated above are not an ideal solution. You can either set up a lever/redstone to turn the engines off (you don't need to touch the machines to conserve energy, they buffer and don't spend without work), or store excess energy like you do in IC2, just with TE's redstone energy cell.

In any case, its a good habit to control on/off with redstone on most BC engines if conserving fuel is a priority (aside from needing something to turn it on) - fuel burn quickly becomes "not an issue", however.

 

[Abdiel]

Use Redstone Energy Cells (also from Thermal Expansion). Something like:

Solar Panels --(IC cable)-- Batbox --(IC cable)-- Electrical Engine --(TE Redstone Conduits)-- Redstone Energy Cell --(Redstone Conduits)-- machines

Feel free to leave cables/conduits out where machines touch each other.

Since solar panels run all the time, they will keep charging the Redstone Cell when your machines are not in use. Then, when you need them, you will have enough energy stored in the cell to run all machines at full efficiency.

 

[Dreossk]

Thanks a lot, heading to nether right now!

 

[tedyhere]

You could also go with hobbyist steam engines they output I believe 1.6MJ once heated properly and are more than effecient enough for the machinery you are using right now.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Your problem is that you weren't producing enough energy with a single steam engine. While it CAN run all those machines, they will run very, very slowly once their reserves start going down. You'll need a second engine to get going. Might want to try a Hobbyist's Steam Engine. They only produce 1.6/t (at least for now), but they run for much longer on coal once they heat up.

I'd also try making charcoal to run machines on instead of burning coal. You're going to need Coal later on for things like Industrial Diamonds, Carbon Plates, and Solar Panels.

Electric engines aren't very efficient, they're best to get your MJ production jump-started if you already have an IC2 setup established.

You may wish to consider starting a biomass production facility up and running, if you have a good supply of materials for it. You will either want a max-size reed farm going, or an arboretum, to produce the stuff that goes in the fermenter. Biogas Engines never explode, produce 4 MJ/t, require Lava to get up and running, and are a viable alternative which runs on green energy. If you have an oil spawn, a Combustion Engine might also be a viable system. You will want a Refinery to make Fuel, though. It's some 18 TIMES better at producing MJ over time, and produces 6 MJ/t in a Combustion Engine.

 

[Greyed]

Or my current favorite, biogas through a still to biofuel then into a liquid boiler. I really love the options we have for MJ power generation, no one way to do it and everyone's got their own cool designs.

 

[netmc]

For me, it ends up being what I have available. If I find a bunch of lava while I am mining at y=12, I go the TE magmatic route. If not, I normally go for peat farms and stack them. They are pretty cheap to make and run. I find I only need 4-8 mj to run a TE ore processing center. If I use a hopper, I normally don't care how long it takes to process all the ores, so I just fill it up and check back on it later. Before the solid fuel Nerf, I used a rc hp boiler running off peat. I love the peat engines as they are the perfect amount of power for most of the forestry farms, and they run practically forever on a stack of peat. I have also used biogas engines, but much more limited in nature.

Electrical engines are terribly inefficient. They are ideal though when you primarily use eu throughout your base, and only need mj for a couple machines.

 

[raiju]

I really like the magmatic engines, seems to practically handle itself other than a whack with a wrench now and then.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Another cute trick from TE:

As you are mining down around Y10 for diamonds and such, and you happen to run into problems with lava pools, make sure you have some cans on you to bring it back up.

Of course, you've got a Liquid Transposer up top pumping the lava into the magmatic engine and returning the cans to you for reuse. After all, even Necromancers are going green these days. Reduce, reuse, reanimate. Each zombie made with 100% post-consumer product!

 

[Zjarek_S]

Add to this cans pump, filled energy cell and liquid transposer to speed it up.Void waterproof pipe is also helpful in getting rid of normal lakes.

 

[nevakanezah]

I understand that the TE infinite lava cycle either has been, or is going to be patched in the near future, such that lava is a less effective fuel source. if i'm not mistaken, the magmatics have already had their output significantly reduced.

 

[Ldog]

Another cute trick from TE:
After all, even Necromancers are going green these days. Reduce, reuse, reanimate. Each zombie made with 100% post-consumer product!

That's right Shneekey:

Don't forget netherrack in the magma crucible. Making lava out of cobble actually costs more energy than the lava will produce but netherrack is efficient.
I tend to use a combination of all the engines, depending what is convenient.

Also a single aqueous accumulator hooked directly to a few engines will run dry but if you hook it up to a tank and pump the water around from there it seems to produce more water than you will ever need.

 

[Evil Hamster]

Solar panels/electrical engines are really best used for remote places you need energy, like a quarry far away from your base, that you don't want to be running back and forth to refuel periodically.

 

[zizizink]

Thanks guys.

Wow kilbiller that sounds great. But I assume that everything will still work even if the energy is not needed, won't that overheat the engines?

It probably will, but if you have a redstone energy cell you can store the energy. The energy cell stores 60000 MJ